Otherwise, it has remained untranslated for the impressive span of forty-five years. A German version, which I have not read, appeared a couple of years later (Ullstein, Berlin, 1928). It was finished by the beginning of the following year and published by an émigré book company (Slovo, Berlin, 1926). I started working on it in Berlin, soon after my marriage in the spring of 1925. In casting around for a suitable substitute (Mariette?, May?) I settled for Mary, which seemed to match best the neutral simplicity of the Russian title name. The Russian title of the present novel, Mashenka, a secondary diminutive of Maria, defies rational transliteration (the accent is on the first syllable with the “a” pronounced as in “ask” and a palatalized “n” as in “mignon”).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |